National Football League players
ratified a 10-year labor agreement with owners that makes the
NFL the first major U.S. professional sports league with blood
testing for human growth hormone.

Last-minute discussions on the drug-testing issue led to a
delay in voting yesterday that forced some teams to push back
the start of practice because veteran free agents who signed
contracts weren’t allowed to take the field until the new
agreement was ratified.

“The goal is to begin testing for HGH the first week of
the regular season,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in an e-
mail last night. “Over the next several weeks, we will discuss
and develop with the union the specific arrangements for the
testing procedures.”

If the contract wasn’t ratified by yesterday, settlement of
the players’ antitrust lawsuit against the owners would have
been voided and the owners could have shuttered the league again.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and National Football League
Players Association spokesman George Atallah sent out messages
celebrating the official end of the 4 1/2-month standoff between
owners and players.

Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith will
sign the agreement this morning at the Pro Football Hall of Fame
in Canton, Ohio, the NFL Network reported. That was to have been
the site of the opening preseason game in two days between the
Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams, a contest that was canceled
because of the work stoppage.

$120 Million Payrolls

Owners and players approved a deal that caps team payrolls
at about $120 million this season, with players receiving about
another $22 million in benefits. The players must receive at
least 47 percent of the league’s revenue, projected at a record
$9.3 billion in 2011, throughout the contract’s 10 years.

The agreement limits how much teams can spend on first-year
players, allows current players to stay in the league’s medical
plan for life and allows them more days off, with fewer
offseason practices. The deal also provides between $900 million
and $1 billion for retiree benefits.

The NFL returned to work last week, opening training camps
and signing players to contracts while final terms of the
agreement were being negotiated. The NFLPA, which decertified as
a collective-bargaining agent when the lockout began, re-formed
as a union on July 29.